The representatives of NCE and its partners, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Campaign), All India Federation of Teachers Organisations (AIFTO), All India Primary Teachers’ Federation and All India Secondary Teachers’ Federation (AISTF) stated here in Ahmedabad recently that although the UPA alliance had promised in its Common Minimum Programme to spend 6 per cent of India’s GDP on education, the real spending remains at less than 3 per cent. Giving details of the campaign, Dharam Vijay Pandit, General Secretary of AIFTO, said, “We will prepare a Pledge Letter. The members who sign it will be listed as Bal Mitra Candidates.”

The pledge seeks to include children of zero-18 years in the Right to Education Act, increase expenditure on elementary education to 20 per cent of the revenue Budget and 50 per cent of the education budget, appoint regular teachers for quality education and introduce a uniform schooling system throughout the country. According to NCE sources, their demands include making of the provisions in the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, stricter, abolition of child labour and eradication of child trafficking.